Meghan Markle declared that she would give up acting after becoming engaged to Prince Harry, but she’s still thrilled by the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd.
This weekend, the former star of legal drama Suits took her fiance to see hip-hop musical Hamilton, which tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
A spokesman for the hit show at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre confirms the royal ‘private visit’, and a fellow audience member tells me: ‘They seemed to love it and were applauding enthusiastically.’
It was, however, too dark to record Harry’s reaction to the scene in which his ancestor, George III, is mocked mercilessly. The English king (played by Michael Jibson, pictured) is portrayed as a ‘puddingish, catty’ figure who stamps his foot on the floor cartoonishly, saying he is feeling blue at the loss of his colony.
Although George III is remembered mainly for losing both the American colonies and his sanity, he is said to be the monarch that Harry’s father, Prince Charles, respects most.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry went to see hip-hop musical Hamilton at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre
During a visit to a school in London’s Pimlico in 2012, Charles described the king as a good man who was simply misunderstood.
Previously, he told a television documentary that George — who, like him, loved the countryside and had a strong interest in architecture — was one of Britain’s most dutiful, cultured and misunderstood rulers.
‘George III led Britain through 60 years of enormous social upheaval, industrial revolution and terrible hardships inflicted by war with Napoleon,’ the Prince said in 2004. ‘Yet history remembered him above all as the “mad king” or the “king who lost America”. This is a travesty.’
Harry and Meghan are not thought to have paid for their tickets, which can cost up to £250 each.
The show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, said last year that he was planning to put tickets aside for the couple, gushing of their potential visit: ‘That would be an absolute treat — obviously it would be an honour for us.’
A Kensington Palace spokesman declines to comment.
In one scene, the play mercilessly mocks Harry’s ancestor, George III, who is remembered for losing the American colonies
Joan takes a swipe at marriage cynics
When Dame Joan Collins, 84, made half-Peruvian theatre manager Percy Gibson her fifth husband, she was asked about the difficulties of marrying a man 33 years her junior.
‘If he dies, he dies,’ she memorably quipped.
This weekend, the former Dynasty star used their 16th wedding anniversary to take a swipe at the cynics.
Sharing a snap from their 2002 reception at Claridge’s in Mayfair, Dame Joan remarked: ‘And they said it wouldn’t last . . .’
She added of Percy, who wore a kilt on the big day: ‘Happy 16th anniversary to the love of my life.’
Dame Joan Collins, 84, just celebrated her 16th wedding anniversary with theatre manager Percy Gibson. She shared this photo (right) of the pair on their wedding day
Playing muscle-bound hunk King Menelaus in the BBC’s new sex and sandals drama, Troy: Fall Of A City, was a bore for 37-year-old Irish actor Jonas Armstrong.
‘There’s an idea of how a king should look, and Menelaus has to be able to handle himself in battle, so it was necessary [to build up the muscles],’ he sighs. ‘But by the end [of filming] I just wanted to smash up the gym.’